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Angling Trust Launches Cormorant Watch Web Site and Calls on Minister to Act to Protect Fish

The Angling Trust has called on the government to do more to protect rivers and lakes from fish-eating birds.

In a letter to Environment Minister George Eustice, the Angling Trust is demanding a doubling of the number of cormorants licensed to be shot in England annually to 6,000. It also calls for the relaxing of the requirement for evidence that goosanders are damaging fisheries before a licence will be issued.

The Angling Trust says the new measures are needed to halt the decline in coarse and game fish in England, particularly endangered salmon and eels which are now at critically low levels nationally. Other species such as roach, dace, trout and barbel have also seen numbers fall in many rivers and lakes.

The letter coincides with the launch of Cormorant Watch 2 – a website where members of the public can record sightings of cormorants, goosanders, red-breasted mergansers and their roost locations. Over 120,000 sightings of birds were recorded when the first edition of Cormorant Watch was launched in 2012, which helped the Angling Trust make the case for the introduction of Area-Based Licences (ABLs) for lethal control of birds, which have reduced bureaucracy and costs for hard-pressed fishery managers and angling clubs. We urge all our members to report any sighting on any of our waters to thiswebsite.

Pressure from angling organisations and angling-related businesses initially saw a previous government introduce a limit on cormorants licensed to be shot of 2,000, with a temporary increase to 3,000. Since then, the work of the Angling Trust has led to fishery managers applying for a far greater number of cormorant licences.

Despite this progress, angling’s representative body believes that a new annual limit of 6,000 for cormorants and a simpler process for licensing the control of goosanders to enable far more than the 283 shot last year are both required. The low number of goosander licences issued is despite the fact that fisheries have put in a huge amount of volunteer time and effort to provide evidence by organised bird counts to prove to Natural England that larger numbers are needed to protect fisheries. Natural England have rejected several strong cases for goosander licences on the basis of insufficient evidence of need for lethal control.

The Minister promised in a letter to the Angling Trust in 2013 that he would review the upper limit of cormorants licenced to be shot if there was evidence of demand. After two winters of licences exceeding 3,000 birds, the Angling Trust believes that this condition has now been met.

The Angling Trust continues to believe that the best outcome would be for cormorants to be included on the general licence as long as the conservation status of the birds is not threatened.

Portsmouth Heron

We received a couple of pictures the other day of a heron eating something on one of the pegs at Portsmouth; can anyone identify what it may be? Let us know via Email at todmorden.as@outlook.com or if you have any more great pictures you'd like to share please send them in!

********CROFT AND TOWNHOUSE*******
The paths are really bad and in need of attention.
Restoning,levelling and resurfacing works is imminent and will involve men and several machines.
Each water will be closed for the duration of the works -see sign on site.
Please bear with us whilst this essential work is done.

Match Secretary

Chris Lett has indicated he will 'step down' from organising the Championship Matches next year.
I am sure everybody would like to join me in thanking Chris for the excellent job he has done over the last four years.
We need somebody to run these matches -maybe on the basis of only partially closing the water being fished owing to the attendance at these matches having dropped to 10-12 entries?
Any volunteers? Contact the club or attend the next committee meeting Oct 4th

Family Fish Day

What a great day on the bank at Ramsden Wood on Sunday 23rd July, we had 10 young anglers turn up 8 that have never fished before and 2 lads returning from the past taster days and even a couple of adults having a go some for the 1st time others that haven’t been for a good while, it’s safe to say everyone enjoyed the day even though the fishing wasn’t as great as in the past few sessions, we put that down to the heavy rain the night before and the bright sunshine throughout the day, but that didn’t stop most managing to catch at least one but the star of the day was 5 year old Aaron who caught 26 fish a mixture of Carp, Roach, Perch, Gudgeon and Ide well done everyone and we hope to see you all again soon… Anyone wanting to attend the next Family Day on Sept 10th contact any of the coaches or E-mail us at todmorden.as@outlook.com.

An update of the improvment work on Summit

Thursday 22nd Adam, Tony, Frank and Stephen spent a very hot evening digging the Iris plants from the fields adjacent to the canal and bagging them up in special bags ready for them to be planted into the canal the day after, approx. 50 bags where made up and to put that in to concept there are between 3/5 plants in each bag and would cost well over £1000 to purchase.

Friday 23rd the lads and the CRT planted 50 bags of flag iris and 16 sapling willow trees to the far bank of the length.

It has added immediate impact on the length and looks great, hopefully they will all take and grow and spread well over the coming years.

Adam Jagger Canal Committee secretary said “off myself and Tony a massive thank you to Stephen Svejnoha and Frank Zac for coming and helping dig the iris on Thursday evening and again to Stephen for driving back over again today(Fri 23rd) and helping with the planting and more good news in that the CRT and Jodie Weathers team have given their support for future canal improvement works which is fantastic news so I'd like to say to Jodie thanks so much for everything you have done for us and your support for what we are trying to achieve.”

Todmorden Angling Society are committed to improving all our waters and this includes the Rochdale Canal.

On Thursday 25/5/17 The Canal and Rivers Trust sent a team to work along side a work party orginised by the Canal Committee to work on the Summit Length to try and improve the fish habitat, the day went well in some very hot conditions, but there is still more to do and the CRT have agreed to give us use of their equipment and a couple of bodies to plant some iris that is growing close by if we can get permission off the land owner to take it.
Adam Jagger our Canal Committee secretary said "They (CRT) have spent £2000 on today for us and them giving us their support going forward is brilliant for the club".

"The angling club run regular matches on this pound, but they noticed that their catches predominantly adult fish, but with very few juvenile fish being caught. Working together, we came up with a plan to improve the habitat for the fish, provide spawning habitat and cover for them. Volunteers from the club and Canal & River Trust staff had a successful day hammering in stakes and installing the pre-planted coir rolls. The club also have plans to continue with the environmental enhancements work, which not only help the fish, but have wider benefits to the canal corridor."

2017 Fish Stocking pt.2

The final delivery of fish arrived Monday 10th April with waters stocked as follows;

Over the last few days the club have continued its commitment to keeping our waters the best club waters around, stocking all our still waters* and also some canal sections so whether you prefer fishing a still water or the local canal this is the club for you! See the gallery for the pictures. Details below.

The Stillwater’s received Carp as follows.

Cliviger Bottom Pond - 59lb Carp plus 150 6"-8" Carp

Cliviger Top Pond - 452lb Carp

Portsmouth Reservoir - 499lb Carp

Ramsden Wood Fishery -248 6"-8" Carp

Croft Fishery - 532lb Carp

Town House Fishery- 502lb Carp.

The Rochdale Canal was stocked with new fish to replace fish lost to the Boxing Day floods.-thanks to a grant received from the Calderdale Community Foundation Flood Fund the Canal and Rivers Trust and the club. The canal received 950lb of Roach (4"-10"), 270lb Bream (8oz to 2lb), 150lb Carp (8oz to 2lb), 40lb Tench (6"-8") and 380 small Perch. White House, Summit, Gasworks/Woodhouse sections were stocked.

*the club decided not to stock Grove Lodge till we sort out the problems with the silt/gravel build up that was washed in, and we have more fish on order for Ramsden Wood and New Mill Dam watch this space for more info.

The Barber of Todmorden!!

Love him or Loath him, Ray Barber has been a member of the club for approaching 60 years and for the past 36 years our Secretary and the work he has done for the club and continues to do goes unnoticed by most but he works tirelessly for the benefit of society whether its finding grants to improve and develop our waters or sourcing the best deals for fish to stock waters or chasing the council or building developers and working with fish legal and the angling trust one thing is for sure it’s all for the good of the society and its future. It’s safe to say he has had a few run ins with people over the years while doing this and he’s certainly well know not only locally but nationally too and one such person that had heard about Ray was John Ellis National fisheries and angling manager, and he even wrote a great article about him…that can be found here!!

Grove Lodge Carpark

With immediate effect two portacabins are to be placed on the car park by contractors who are working in the area rebuilding a wall.
The contractors are FW Sherratt Ltd. and the site contact is Dave Gammon on 07802 468085. Two cabins will be on the car park-but there will still be room for a couple of anglers cars. The work will extend until April 24th. Any damage to fencing or car park surface will be made good on completion of the works.

Croft/TownHouse Carpark Application

The consultation period has just started with the application to be decided by March 6th.2017.

A template letter of support has been produced and sent out to most of our tackle shop outlets for members (and supporters) to complete individually.

Please complete one of these letters of support for this project to build a 15 space car park at the top of the hill on Croft and a 10 space car park on the left hand side of the pathway as you walk down to Town House just before the final entrance gate.

The completed letters of support will be posted to Rochdale M.B.C. for you it will not even cost you a stamp! You can take it home and post yourself if you choose.
These letters will be available for completion within the next couple of days and MUST be returned to Rochdale Planning Dept by the end of February at latest. Or you can click the link below and download your own and send it off if you are unable to get to your local tackle shop!

The Environment Agency will be coming to Grove to do a Bathametric Survey of the bottom of the lodge on Thursday January 26th at 10am. This will plot the depths of the lodge which will give a good indication of how far into the lodge the silt has spread.
The Environment Agency will then carry out a fish survey out on Monday March 6th. commencing at 10am on site.

2017 Stocking

The stock fish have been ordered for all waters and are expected around mid March watch this space for more details!!

Jan 2017 !!

The 2016 Todmorden Angling Society Licences have now expired and a new(2017) licence is required before you fish any of our waters in 2017.
Please purchase your new licence before you go fishing.
If you are caught fishing any of our waters without a new licence you will be asked to leave and refused membership for this year.
Day Tickets are available for Grove Lodge,Cliviger Fishponds and the Rochdale Canal. The cost is £5 in advance -BEFORE fishing.
Day tickets are available from most of our tackle shop outlets.If you are caught fishing without a day ticket -you will be charged double on the bank.

A Look Back In History

One of our members came accross this picture on an online facebook page, a team photo from the mid 1970's of our national angling championship team!!

If anyone has any info or pictures from the past feel free to share on our Facebook page or email us at todmorden.as@outlook.com

KEEP NET AND STINK BAG BAN

Due to two KHV outbreaks within 30 miles of Todmorden Angling Society waters it has been decided by the committee to implement a keep net and stink bag ban on all still waters. (this ban does not affect the canal)

Anyone caught using a keep net or with a stink bag will have their licence removed and receive a life time ban from the society. The club asks all our members to keep there eyes open and if they see anyone disobeying this ban please contact poaching officer Dave Dempsey 07880823630 or any club officail and they can get somone out ASAP to deal with them.

This does not affect matches, however, measures have been put in place with the match anglers to ensure there is no chance of contamination.

TAS does not have any waters affected by the KHV virus and we'd like to keep it that way. This decision has been taken to protect the fish stocks and stop the spread of disease.

We hope you understand.

The Committee

KHV(Koi herpesvirus)

What is KHV?

KHV is a viral disease of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) and all its varieties - such as mirror, leather, ghost, koi etc. The disease occurs at higher water temperatures (16˚C+), is highly contagious and may cause up to 100% mortality. Infected fish shed the virus in faeces, urine, and mucus from the gills and skin. The disease is transmitted by fish to fish contact, and also via angling equipment and contaminated water.

What can we do??

As anglers, we all have a responsibility to stop the spread of diseases between venues, and you can prevent the spread of things such as KHV simply by allowing your nets and stink bags to dry out properly in sunlight. Peg them out, give then a quick squirt of disinfectant, then rinse in fresh water and leave to dry.

By coincidence, today(20/7/06) there has been a closure of a lake in Bradford....

Without naming the fishery, it has been closed due to a high mortality rate, the EA are waiting to see if this is a KHV case, which it seems to be. If it isn't then it could be a severe bacterial outbreak.

In any case we can't stress strongly enough the need to treat your nets properly between fishing sessions.

Summary

KHV affects all varieties of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) including varieties such as mirror, leather, koi and ghost koi

KHV outbreaks occur at temperatures over 16°C and cause large scale mortalities up to 100%

Clinical signs include lethargic or erratic behaviour, loss of mucus and sunken eyes. Gills often have dead patches which look pale or rotten.

As there is no treatment, it can cause serious economic losses in coarse fisheries

Don’t hesitate: it is a notifiable disease in the UK and you have a legal obligation to report any suspicion of a KHV outbreak either contact someone from the club or environment agency.

Cormorant Lines.

The lines and wires accross our waters are there to try and provent preditory birds from landing to protect our fish stock, anyone found tampering or removing them will have there licence taken and asked to appear at the next committee meeting.

Cormorants/Goosanders

We are trying to establish the actual damage Cormorants and Goosanders are causing to our fisheries.
Can members please post on the forum or here -types of birds present, which water and numbers of birds with time/date?
Can members also please take photos to prove what they are saying-i.e. take photos as well.
If possible video Cormorants flying over our waters.
Please send Dave Dempsey photos/videos by e-mail or text 07880-823630 e-mail david.caffeshop@gmail.com
Will matchmen and pleasure anglers take photos of damaged fish caught -and e-mail to Dave.

Grove Lodge -Fire on Calderbrook Road May 2012

For the information of members. Fish Legal have reached a settlement of our claim against Multiroof Building Products Ltd. with the insurers of the Mill on Calderbrook Road which set fire in May 2012 and was quite dramatic-complete with explosions! There were large tanks of solvent on the site which exploded-some of the solvent finding it’s way into the watercourse which feeds Grove Lodge-and a category 2 pollution occurred killing quite a lot of the fish stocks.
We restocked in winter 2012-3 and again in winter 2013-4 and the fishery seems to have recovered quite well.
Further details can be obtained by attending our A.G.M. in November.

Up coming Events

Northern Angling Show 2018

Come along and see us at the show we are there both Sat & Sun February 24th/25th 2018

£1 to the Golden peg, up to a maximum of £200.00, £1 to the Club Championship. Pay top 3 if 12 or less fish. Pay top 4 if more than 12 fish.

Draw time will be 9am. Fish 10.30am to 3.30pm (organiser’s discretion)

Graham Mallinson Sundays 07794 498051

Committee Meetings 2017..

Wednesday February 1st.
Wednesday March 1st.
Wednesday April 5th. Now March 29th.
Wednesday May 3rd.Wednesday June 7th. Cancelled
Wednesday July 5th.
Wednesday August 9th.
Wednesday September 6th.
Wednesday October 4th.
Wednesday November 1st.(Plus matches decided for 2018)
Wednesday November 8th (A.G.M.)
Wednesday December 6th.